“When the walls / come crumbling down”

How much worse can things get for House Republicans right now? Mark Foley’s predilection for little boys would’ve seemed to have been a catastrophe. But instead, Foley’s pediophilia is just the tip of the iceberg. The Republican cover-up is turning out to be the true catastrophe for the House Republicans. One which they aren’t going to recover from.

So just how bad is it? It looks like the coverup has been going on for three years:

At the same time, a congressional aide said in an Associated Press
interview he first warned Hastert’s aides more than three years ago
that Foley’s behavior toward pages was troublesome. That was long
before GOP leaders acknowledged learning of the problem.

The aide, Kirk Fordham, said he had “more than one conversation with
senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives
asking them to intervene” several years ago.

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert’s staff immediately said this was false, of course. Hastert is fighting for his political life here, trying to deny that there was any type of cover-up. But with every passing day, new information is released which points to a massive cover-up. And House Republicans are starting to realize that Hastert’s ship is sinking:

Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, third-ranking leader, pointedly told reporters he would
have handled the matter differently than the speaker, had he known of
it.

“I think I could have given some good advice here, which is, You
have to be curious, you have to ask all the questions you can think
of,” said Blunt, a member of the leadership. “You absolutely can’t
decide not to look into activities because one individual’s parents
don’t want you to.”

Republican Rep. Ron Lewis of Kentucky, in a tougher-than-expected re-election race, abruptly
canceled an invitation for Hastert to join him at a fundraiser next
week.

“I’m taking the speaker’s words at face value,” Lewis told the AP.
“I have no reason to doubt him. But until this is cleared up, I want to
know the facts. If anyone in our leadership has done anything wrong,
then I will be the first in line to condemn it.”

I think it is safe to say that Hastert is not going to survive the scandal. It’s also a fair bet that at least a few incumbent Republicans will lose their seats because of this. November’s election was already looking promising for Democrats. Now, it looks like a sure thing that the Dems will take control of the House.